Volcan Barva

Although San Jose isn’t the most attractive, or cleanest, or picturesque, or vibrant, or well, you get the idea, less than an hour away are some amazing sites to visit, including Barva Volcano and Parque Nacional Braulio Carillo, which I hiked on Sunday. The hike began by taking a 5:30am bus to Heredia, then taking another bus to Barva, then waiting around for almost an hour to take the last bus. Despite all appearances, the bus somehow managed to take us up a steep road to a village halfway up the volcano. Diana, Izzy and I began walking up the volcano -well actually it’s not active and you can’t see the crater so you wouldn’t know it’s a volcano unless someone told you- at 7:30. We walked together for about an hour and then my impatient side took over whereupon I decided to walk ahead. At some point I lost sight of them but I just figured we would meet up at some point. 8km later I reached the entrance to the park, now the hike could begin! The trail climbed steadily up the mountain and led to three lagoons. I only managed to make it to the second one though because the trail devolved into a muddy sludge that trapped my shoes a couple of times.

I haven’t seen much of Costa Rica yet –give me some time- and maybe this holds true for several other places here, but Barva Volcano is the land that time forgot, it looks like the set for one of the Lord of the Rings movies. Since I got there relatively early, I didn’t see anyone else until I was on my way out. I’d never hiked alone and it’s a completely different, transcendental, and ultimately unsafe experience. But being alone with nature in such a raw form is quite moving and powerful. Damn, is this what surfers sound like “Dude, the waves, they’re like spiritual and stuff, it’s like you’re in tune with the earth man”? Let me stop then and let the pictures speak for themselves. For the record, my final tally was 18km hiked and I was fortunate enough to avoid getting rained on, always something worth mentioning in Costa Rica. I never did run into Diana and co. but I did finagle a ride back to Barva saving me an 18km hike (I wasn't going to wait around for the 5pm bus from the village to take me back to Barva). Pura Vida!